Protection and Guard Service (SPP) is a state body with functions in the field of national security, specialized in providing protection for the Romanian dignitaries, the foreign dignitaries during their stay in Romania, and their families, within its legal competence. It also provides guard for the headquarters and residences of the abovementioned dignitaries in accordance with the decisions of the Supreme Council of National Defence. SPP has a military structure and is part of the national defence system and through its specialized structures, has among other the following functions:
- organizes and carries out activities in order to prevent and annihilate any action that might be a threat to the life, physical integrity, freedom of action and health of the persons whose protection is in its charge;
- carries out the guard and defence of these persons’ headquarters and residences;
- organizes and carries out, overtly or under cover, activities of gathering, checking and using the necessary intelligence, only with a view to completing its missions accordingly to the law;
- carries out exchange of intelligence and cooperates with intelligence services as well as with similar departments both within the country and abroad, in order to fulfil the specific missions stipulated by law;
- organizes and conducts, during the missions of protection and guard, the activity of all the participating forces;
- intervenes, independently or in cooperation with other institutions designated by the law in order to prevent or counteract the actions that may endanger the life, physical integrity, health or freedom of action of the protected as well as the security of the guarded objectives. It also intervenes to capture or annihilate the terrorist and aggressive elements;
- carries out independently or in cooperation with other specialized institutions, actions of search, identification and annihilation of the suspect objects which can be dangerous for the protected persons or guarded objectives.